A Bench for My Uncle #6: Finished and Finished

Once the bench was glued together and the bottom slats were cut to size, it was time to finish the bench. We knew that the bench would spend spring, summer, and fall in the Palouse hills in Eastern Washington and get some significant sun exposure. We expect that the bench will be brought in during the cold winter months. So after some research we decided to finish the bench with a few coats of a spar urethane that provides U/V protection. The reason are that it will weather nicely however there will be some maintenance after a few years. We were told that you don’t have to strip the previous application prior to the application of the new application. My uncle was on board with this approach.

The only problem was that when we started to apply the finish it was too cold in the shop for proper application. My wife (who is my finisher) suggested we apply the finish up in the master bedroom. Okay. I laughed when I came up and she was in the bathtub applying the finish to the bottom side of the bench. Ain’t she great?

After it was finished it sat in our study for almost 6 months before I had the opportunity to meet up with my uncle for the delivery. He was excited to take it home and pleased with the outcome. Thanks for following along, it was a fun project.